Authentication of BTU Certificates for use abroad

In order for your graduation certificates to be accepted in your home or destination country, please ask the recipient whether a diplomatic attestation of the original or a copy is required. Depending on the country, one of the following variants is accepted:

Apostille

The apostille is the most common contractual agreement between countries. It is issued for a specific country and thus, is only recognised by that country. 

To request an apostille, please submit the following documents to the International Relations Office:

  1. Fully completed form Antrag_Apostille_BTU from BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
  2. The original documents to be certified (certificates, transcripts of records etc.)
  3. Fully completed form Antrag_Apostlle_LHP from the state capital of Potsdam

The apostille will be issued in a two-step procedure. Processing time is at least 3 weeks, so please plan accordingly.

Your documents and the invoice will be sent to you directly by the state capital of Potsdam as the general lower state authority. At present, a fee of €31.00 plus postage per document is charged for the issue of the apostille and the certification endorsement for legalisation and must be paid in advance by notification. 

Pre-certifications for legalisation are free of charge. The fees are then charged as part of the subsequent legalisation procedure by the Federal Office for Foreign Affairs.

Legalisation

For countries that have not acceded to the agreement on the acceptance of apostilles, the documents are first pre-certified as described under Apostille (by BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and the state capital Potsdam) and then sent directly by the state capital Potsdam to the Federal Office for Foreign Affairs, Apostille and Claims Management Division, Apostille and Final Certification Team, Kirchhofstraße 1-2, 14776 Brandenburg an der Havel, with the completed Apostille BWA application form, which you must also submit.

The fee is currently 31 € per document plus an additional 2 € for delivery to a German address (in this case, the 31 € fee per document charged by the state capital of Potsdam will not be incurred). 

Afterwards, the documents will then be endorsed by the embassy/ consulate of the respective country. For certain documents, no legalization is required by the respective recipient state. Please inquire at the relevant embassy.